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Project - Cube Collectiveject

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ssjwizard

Has slightly less legible writing than Thideras
Joined
Mar 12, 2002
Hello everybody!!! well it has been a while since I've done a case mod or done a write up here at OCF, and I must say its been FAR FAR to long. On the plus side over the last 5 years my skills have improved, and I've learned a lot of new techniques. I cant wait to get started on this thing.

Ok so lets go over the project briefing.

Goal build two cases for myself and my wife with a possible third for a friend/relative/lucky person.

Objectives, the case will be completely hand crafted with few exceptions(motherboard rear io tray). Water cooling of all primary heat sources. Use the fewest number of fans while maintaining a good cooling profile.

explanation of title, ok so these cases are taking some inspiration from the "borg cube". No this case is not intended to look anything like the ones seen on tv and movies. The case will be somewhat cubic due to the nature of the size of all the water cooling gear.

Lets talk detials now then.

Alright then, this is the general basis of what were going to be using parts wise. The exact ones may change as we come to the time to purchase but this should demonstrate our intent.

systemparts.jpg


So I have made a few tweaks to the WC plan since starting on this project and Ive got a rough estimate of the parts we will be buying prefabricated.
*note This is the cooling hardware for the first 2 cases

wcsetup.jpg


Ok so on to cooling as this is one of the primary issues with this build. I plan to use the Mo-Ra3 360, cooled by 4 silverstone AP181(180mm 130 CFM).
The reservoir is going to be an 8" octagon cut from 1/4" sheets of transparent green acrylic. Each has 2 1" watergaps. The lower will be covered over with a slotted plate for the pump to sit on, the upper will be sealed with a 1" hose barb in the center to create a hydraulic bank. There will be barbs threaded into the sides of this area to provide flow for each of the different loops.
We will be using a 120v 740gph pump with a head of 11' to power this whole system.
Flow balancing will be evaluated after all of the loops are built, and an out of system run with all the return hoses into gallon jugs to compare resistance. If needed I will design a bank of valves to regulate each loops back pressure.

Heres a few concept renders.

caselayoutconceptwithgr.jpg


shrouds.jpg


radiator2.jpg


radiator1v.jpg


casecage1.jpg


casecage2.jpg


cage3.jpg


cage4.jpg


cage2d.jpg


waterblocks.jpg


Ok well the 3d models are done and payday is Friday.

so here we have a cube case with 450mm^3 interior space. The resivior measures 10" high 8"diameter octagon. There are 3 distinct parallel loops in this system. the first goes from the res to the rad and back again for minimal resistance. The second drawn as blue is connected 2 GPU blocks in series with a CPU block on the end. The third loop is all of the mobo components in series for maximum resistance.


Well I hope you enjoy the show its going to take a good part of this year to build these(which is a good thing it will give me time to evaluate BD against SB).

*** Note all 3d drawings are to proper scale and will be printed to be used as patterns for some cuts and recesses.
 
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The fan shroud section and the radiator housing are separate parts. I'm planning on setting T nuts in between the 1/2 and 3/4 sheets of the rad housing and recess 1/4X20 machine screws down through the shroud into them. The radiator section is 1/4" deeper than the spec on the radiator and Im intending to run 1/4" high density silicone insulation strip on all of the mdf faces that will contact the radiator so it should be shock/vibration isolated aswell as air sealed.
 
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Well just got back from a long weekend to find that the fedex and ups faeries stopped by.

vgablock1.jpg

gtx460.jpg

gtx460preped1.jpg

gtx460preped.jpg

gtx4601.jpg

gtx4602.jpg

gtxmoboblockscomplete.jpg

gtxmoboblockscomplete1.jpg

gtxmoboblockscomplete2.jpg

mobo1.jpg

mobo2.jpg

mobog.jpg

parts1.jpg

partszr.jpg

rad1e.jpg

rad2o.jpg

radfans.jpg

vgablocks.jpg

vgablocks1.jpg

vgablocks2.jpg
 
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reserved
 
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Ok well some important changes have taken place in this project over the last few days. Driven by my desire to try out all of the new goodies that AMD is putting out the HW specs have changed somewhat. Based on that change some of the cooling components have been changed. Finally as a result some of the design has been changed to match the new setups.

Her system,
AMD lliano A8
powercolor radeon 6670
4gb ddr3 1866 cas 8 gskill ripjaws
nmedia pc 430w psu(Reuse from old media pc very stable)
corsair 115gb sata 3 SSD
seagate 500GB 7200RPM sata 2 HDD

Cooling :
Alphacool NexXxoS HP Pro Highflow
EK universal chipset waterblock(for the 6670)
viaaqua 1800 300gph pump
mora 3
monster pcs 360mm 134cfm fan.

Dress up items:
6-7 coats sherwin williams hardened jet black enamel
3-5 coats sherwin williams hardened scuff resistant clear enamel
2 red 12" led bars
2 UV 12" led bars
UV purple cable sleeves
UV purple zip ties, tie anchors, and hose clamps
UV red primochil 7/16 x 5/8
Custom blue acrylic reservoir
blue leds in the monster fan
Red led case feet
purple EL cable between the mesh grill and the radiator

My system

Gigabyte 990xa-ud3
amd phenom 2 2.8ghz 95w deneb(reuse from media pc, to be replaced with BD)
4gb kingston hyperx ddr3 1333 cas 7 (reuse from media pc to be replaced after seeing bd memory performance)
2x evga gtx 460 1gb ddr5
corsair 115gb sata3 SSD(to be replaced with an ocz revodrive 256gb model next spring)

Cooling:
Alphacool NexXxoS HP Pro Highflow
2x xspc razor 460
ek ga AMD kit acetyl tops(mosfets & NB, SB has a good hs on it and is not in a good location).
2x koolance ram 33(purchased next spring non essential component)
mora 3
2x silverstone ap 181 120 cfm fans
water extreme 2500 600gph 3 meter head 55w AC pump

dress up items:
6-7 coats sherwin williams hardened jet black enamel
3-5 coats sherwin williams hardened scuff resistant clear enamel
2 UV 12" cold cathodes
UV red cable sleeves
UV red zip ties & tie anchors
black hose clamps
UV green primochil 7/16 x 5/8
custom green acrylic reservoir
Green led acrylic case feet
green EL wire between the mesh guard and the radiator

both systems will be utilizing a single loop setup with no fancy pressurized hydraulic system(simplicity, time).
The lift out drive cage at this time is still planned to be part of the build and may get some extra dress up added.
Switches were initially going to be located on the lift out panel but were thinking in a pci slot may be a better location.

All materials and hardware have been ordered or received with exception of the A8 APU which we cant order until sunday.
Hopefully I will get a chance to start on this project in about two weeks. These changes were decided on for 1: try the new amd APUs 2: shorten this to a 6 month project rather than an 18 month project 3: save some power 2x 580 3gb + 8c bulldozer was going to be not only un nessicary far outside of my wifes idea of a reasonable budge
 
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Nice job! We have similar builds. I'm wondering what's your cooling loop order? Excuse me if I missed it. I'm using pump>VGA x2 in parallel>CPU>rad>res>back to pump. I know a lot of people would frown upon the CPU not being cooled first, but the temperature of the VGA memory and VR's in my system seems to be the weakest link.
 
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Loop order is insignificant. If your flow rate is sufficient for that heatload the delta across each block should be so minute that it wont make a difference in temps. I will probably be going pump > radiator > VGA in parallel > CPU and chipeset in parallel > reservoir.

The chipset being in parallel with the CPU loop should allow a tollerable amount of flow through the chipset blocks without restricting the main cooling loop.
 
Smaller images please, I'd like to check out your progress without having to wait 15mins for all the 3888x2592 pics to load...:rolleyes:
 
Smaller images please, I'd like to check out your progress without having to wait 15mins for all the 3888x2592 pics to load...:rolleyes:

Same, plus unless it's just me over half of them didn't load.

Looks nice from what I am able to see so far.
 
Ok I will resize all of the images down to a more reasonable size this week, sorry for the inconvenience there.

Well I got another large shipment of parts from newegg, as well as the remainder of the cooling parts (less one radiator). I also picked up the first round of paint and a new airless sprayer. Ive got all of the wood, steel, and plastic mats ill need. Should have most of the hardware give or take a few bits that I havnt worked out the details on yet.

I have a few small projects around the house to finish and will be out of town for the [H] gaming / AMD preview event this weekend. Hoping to get this build kicked off within the next two weeks.
 
Can't wait for tax time - might start my own water cooled PC...

This ones looking good - definitely staying to watch this build :)
 
I've been DYING to do my first WC build. These threads make me jealous. Think for my birthday I'll buy myself a WC setup. Sweet start btw.
 
Ok so I just got done(almost) tearing apart a PSU for my wifes fusion build. Its a recycle so it had ALOT of molex connectors which were unneeded. Also the psu came equiped with a watt meter that went in a 3.5" bay which is also unneeded. So a hacking we shall go!

psu1y.jpg

psu2c.jpg

You will notice that orange wire floating around. Its a 3.3vsb rail that powered the watt meter previously. I decided to keep it around so I can convert that molex chain that I kept to a SATA chain.
oragnewire.jpg

molexchainorange.jpg

sleevedorange.jpg

sleeved1.jpg

sleeved2.jpg

sleeved3.jpg

sleeved4.jpg


This is the first time I have done any sleeving, but I think it is off to a good start. Sadly though apparently I didnt order the 1/8" red sleeve so we will have to wait for that to finish. Im planning to do alternating color sleeves on the main power connector in singles. I may just do a grouping arangment depending on my patience level tomorrow.

I also had a chance to get the first few panels cut out and Im playing with a few of the details of the layout. Ill get pics up for that later, hopefully Ill get a chance to put some more time in on thursday.
 
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As someone else already mentioned, you're oversized pics need to be fixed, the thread takes forever to load, and it's nearly impossible to read.
 
As someone else already mentioned, you're oversized pics need to be fixed, the thread takes forever to load, and it's nearly impossible to read.

+1

Half the pics dont work either.
If you use photobucket it will resize the pics for you.

Also Id recomend only posting a few pics per post.
 
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